The Department of Audio & Visual Arts of the Ionian University, on the occasion of the 12th Audiovisual Arts Festival and in collaboration with the Municipal Art Gallery of Corfu, inaugurates the exhibition of the British visual artist Rob Kesseler on 30th of May 2018.

Rob Kesseler combines scientific technologies with the eye of the artist in order to reveal the microscopic dimension of plants.

For the exhibition entitled GENUS he has developed a new body of work inspired by his personal collection of hand coloured botanical woodcuts from 1568 by the Italian botanist Pietro Matthioli. Working from specimens collected around his studio in Corfu, Hellebore, Asphodel, Iris, Plantago and Wild leek, the exhibition generates an intriguing visual spectacle that moves the traditional modes of botanical art into a more contemporary dimension through a range of techniques and media: video, micro-photography, drawing and digitally engraved woodcut prints.

Using high resolution microscopes at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, the specimens collected in Corfu include pollen grains, seeds and leaves magnified thousands of times in order to create images of high chromatic intensity which lie between science and symbolism.

About the artist:

Rob Kesseler divides his time between London and Corfu teaching at the University of the Arts London, where he is Chair of Arts, Design and Science at Central Saint Martins.

He collaborates also with the Ionian University as an invited lecturer at the Corfu Summer School in Hybrid Arts in the Department of Audio & Visual Arts as well as guest researcher at the BiHELab of the Department of Informatics.